Keith Richards

"Life," Keith Richards' 500-plus-page autobiography, is a life story remarkably short on life stories — or at least the sort we might expect. Partly, of course, that's a matter of memory. "The ultimate party," Richards writes, "if it's any good, you can't remember it. You get these brief vignettes of what you did. " But even more, it has to do with intention, with what Richards wants to say about his myth. He is, after all, the very model of the rock star bad boy: drug addict, bluesman, libertine.

Keith Richards remembers the period in the early 1970s when the Rolling Stones were working on "Exile on Main St." as a fairly down time. The parts he remembers at all, that is. That's partly due to the fact that the recording sessions took place as the Stones guitarist and songwriter's heroin habit took hold in a big way, a habit that took him nearly a decade to shake. But it wasn't strictly the drugs he was referring to when he spoke recently about that fabled phase in his and the group's life.

Looking to live on Satisfaction Street? Or Ruby Tuesday Drive? If so, Dartford, England, is the place to go. Streets there are being named after classic Rolling Stones hits in honor of local heroes Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. The ties to the town just east of London are strong: Jagger was born there and attended elementary school there, meeting Richards when both were schoolboys. The new Stones streets are part of a major new housing development that also will include some businesses.

1. Will Smith is apparently pleased with the self-portrait he took on the red carpet for the premiere in Japan of "I Am Legend." Smith has plenty of company, unlike his film character, the last human survivor in New York. 2. From one musical artist to another, Johnny Depp, left, who has the musical "Sweeney Todd" under his belt, and Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, at the New York premiere for the film. 3.

The nearly three-hour "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" (Disney, $35) sails onto DVD today with a lavish two-disc set that includes among its extras a riotous interview between the film's star, Johnny Depp, and Rolling Stones guitar legend Keith Richards, who has a cameo in the adventure as Capt. Jack Sparrow's father. Depp based his character on Richards, so to watch the two together is like watching a doppelganger.

Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards has demanded an apology from Swedish newspapers for their scathing reviews of the group's performance in the country this month. Tabloids Expressen and Aftonbladet gave thumbs down to the Aug. 3 concert at Ullevi stadium in Goteborg, with Expressen suggesting Richards was "superdrunk" on stage. "This is a first!" the 63-year-old rock star wrote in a letter published by Stockholm daily Dagens Nyheter. "Never before have I risen to the bait of a bad review.

Off the cuff or up the nose? That was the question Wednesday as Keith Richards said he was joking when he described snorting his father's ashes along with a hit of cocaine. "It was an off-the-cuff remark, a joke, and it is not true. File under April Fools' joke," said Bernard Doherty, a Rolling Stones spokesman, about Richards' quote in NME magazine. But the magazine said on its website that the remark was "no quip, but came about after much thinking" by the 63-year-old guitarist.

Keith Richards has acknowledged consuming a raft of illegal substances in his time, but this may top them all. In comments published Tuesday, the 63-year-old Rolling Stones guitarist said he had snorted his father's ashes mixed with cocaine. "The strangest thing I've tried to snort? My father. I snorted my father," Richards was quoted as saying by British music magazine NME. "He was cremated, and I couldn't resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn't have cared," he said.

Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones says that with the death Thursday of Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun, "the old recording industry goes with him" and further said the Turkish-born ambassador's son who started the influential R&B and rock record label in 1947 was "as much a father to us as he was a formidable guy to do business with."

On the eve of the relaunching of the Rolling Stones' European tour, Keith Richards said he's recovered completely from a head injury suffered in a fall. "I feel great. I can't wait to get back on the stage again. Basically everything is cool," Richards said Monday in Milan, Italy, where the Stones are scheduled to resume their "A Bigger Bang" tour tonight. The 62-year-old guitarist fell from a tree April 27 while vacationing in Fiji, forcing the Stones to postpone their European tour.